Agrégateur de flux

A máltai vízi őrség bejelentette, hogy a szigetország partjainál kimentett a tengerből 87 afrikai menekültet, akik egy felfújható gumihajón érkeztek a térségbe, de a túlélők közlése szerint húsz utastársuk útközben meghalt.

The following by Phyllis Chesler is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Model Awareness: Cosmo UK's Bold Honor Killing Cover
by Phyllis Chesler
Breitbart
January 20, 2015http://www.meforum.org/4987/cosmo-honor-killings
Originally published under the title, "Cosmopolitan UK Mock-up Cover Depicts Suffocating Victim of Honor Killing."

Though it will not hit news stands, a mock-up cover released by Cosmo UK is raising awareness about honor killings.The cover is shocking, gruesome, and bold. It features the face of a woman encased in plastic, being smothered to death. A video shows the plastic wrapping being ripped open, "signifying the release of women from violence."Cosmopolitan magazine in the UK has released a mock-up cover of their February issue, designed by Leo Burnett Chase,  as part of a campaign to raise awareness about honor killings. The cover is that of a 17-year-old British-Pakistani girl, Shafilea Ahmed, who was suffocated to death by her parents in 2003 for the crime of refusing an arranged marriage.
Cosmo has joined Karma Nirvana and the Henry Jackson Society in organizing an "inaugural Day of Memory for Britain's Lost Women, which will take placeJuly 14—the day of Shafilea Ahmed's birthday."
Will mainstreaming a critique of honor killing reach those most likely to perpetrate so dishonorable a crime? Are this cover and the planned campaign proof that some Europeans are ready to relinquish the failed doctrine of multi-cultural relativism, appeasement, and the "soft" double standard of racism? Is the British legal system finally ready to do whatever it takes to abolish barbaric cultural practices?What happened to Shafilea?Shafilea Ahmed was a young British-Pakistani girl whose only crime was that of becoming too "Western." Her parents allegedly sedated her without her knowledge and packed her off to Pakistan to meet her much older cousin to whom she had been promised in marriage. Shafilea responded by drinking bleach in a failed suicide attempt. She refused the marriage. Her mother, Farzana, was furious that she had "made a scene."


From her parents' point of view, Shafilea's body, virginity, and fertility were resources that belonged to her family.From her parents' point of view, Shafilea's body, virginity, and fertility were resources that belonged to her family, not to Shafilea herself. Shafilea had shamed the family. Her younger siblings would not be able to find spouses.
This may sound "crazy" to a Westerner, but is totally understandable and acceptable to tribal people. A daughter who is slightly disobedient, not to mention disobedient in a significant way (such as refusing an arranged marriage), has shamed her family. This amounts to a capital offense. This is true among Muslims globally, Hindus in India, Sikhs, and Yazidis.
Hindus in India honor kill when young lovers marry someone of the "wrong" caste and/or someone of their own choosing.
Muslims honor kill for a wide variety of reasons, which range from refusing to veil, desiring an advanced education, dressing in a Western fashion, having non-Muslim friends, a non-Muslim boyfriend, refusing an arranged marriage, wanting to divorce a violent husband, etc.
Shafilea endured years of being beaten and threatened, sometimes almost daily; she was sometimes isolated and starved. Shafilea tried to get help. In her own words, found in an application for housing help, she wrote: "Regular incidents… One parent would hold me while the other hit me."

The British judge told Shafilea's parents, "your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than your love of your child."At the time, in multi-culturally correct Britain, there was no "help" for her. According to an editorial at theGuardian, "Her school, the police, and the social services in Warrington were all aware that there were difficulties in the family. She was 11 when sheran away for the first time."
When the beatings and abuse failed, Shafilea's family felt they had to kill her because, clearly, they had failed to control her. Thus, her father, Iftikhar, a 42-year-old a taxi-driver, and her mother, Farzana, a 40-year-old housewife, murdered her in cold blood by smothering her in plastic.They forced all their children to witness the murder—and threatened to kill them if they ever told anyone.
The police found Shafilea's body in the River Kent, in Cumbria, but they had no witnesses. According to the Telegraph:For nine years Shafilea Ahmed's parents thought their surviving children were so terrified of them that they would never break ranks…To ensure there were no lapses, they were given a detailed "script" of what they should and should not say to friends, teachers and the police…about [their] sister's disappearance.Please understand: The family silence is Mafia-like and usually unbreakable.
According to the Daily Mail, authorities knew that there was a suitcase packed in the Ahmed hallway which contained "gold bars and the children's passports… just in case [they] had to leave the country at the drop of a hat."According to the Guardian,Intermittent attempts were made to offer her support, but they were repeatedly compromised by basic mistakes. Her friends and tutors knew of her father's violent temper yet interviews were conducted while he remained in the same room. To avoid answering difficult questions the Ahmed parents claimed they were victims of racism.The break came when Alesha came forward and when Chief Crown Prosecutor Nazir Afzaltook matters into his capable hands.
Some people believe that honor killings are primarily carried out by male relatives. This is not true. Women are perpetrators and collaborators, accomplices and instigators. (I am working on a study about this.) Like men, women have also internalized the honor codes and a mother is even more responsible for a daughter's perceived insubordination than a father is.
Farzana was an active perpetrator both in the murder and the disposal of her daughter's body. Alesha told theDaily Mail that "their mother began the attack with the words 'Just finish it here,' before her father stuffed a plastic bag in Shafilea's mouth, holding it there until she stopped breathing."
When I asked CCP Afzal what Farzana was like, he said this: "She was extremely strong, very charismatic, an established community leader, with a manipulative personality. As an uneducated woman in an arranged marriage, Farzana probably viewed her lifestyle as the only possible option for her daughters." This was true for millennia in Pakistan and is still true today in non-assimilated Muslim enclaves in the West.
According to Afzal, "Alesha arranged to have her own home burgled to get back at mom and dad. We arrested her. Once in police custody, she said that the reason she did this is because '[her] mom and dad killed [her] older sister in front of me. [Her] mum said '[She will] be next.'"
According to the Telegraph, Alesha's testimony "threw the killers' carefully-constructed defence into disarray." In 2012, Farzana and Iftikhar were both convicted and jailed for life.
Shafilea Ahmed was betrayed by her family, then was betrayed again by a British system that did not help her.
This is a tragic story about a girl who was betrayed by her family and cultural customs, who tried to save her own life, but was betrayed again by a British system that did not help her do so.
However, Alesha became a hero when she decided to save her own life and bravely spoke out. CCP Afzal made sure this case was properly handled. Afzal has handled a number of honor killing prosecutions. Please note that both heroes are Muslims.
How does the West change barbaric tribal customs? Is it even possible? Do we rescue those who wish to live assimilated Western lives—and deport everyone else? Who will become "family" to the heroic girls who resist being honor killed and who turn their own parents in? Who is talking to Alesha today?
At a policy level, Western leaders must stop talking to the Muslim Islamist street and immediately turn to anti-Islamist and anti-tribal Muslims who understand the bloody nature of honor codes and who treasure Western law and Enlightenment ideals.
Phyllis Chesler, an emerita professor of psychology and women's studies and the author of fifteen books, is a Shillman-Ginsburg fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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Technorati Tag: Honor Killings.

Finnugor képregény sorozatunk következő részében a számi nyelvjárásokra szeretnénk felhívni a figyelmet. A mondat eredeti magyar jelentése a "Lúddal repülök", ennek olvasható itt négy különféle változata Kiss Norbert tollából és varázsceruzájából.

Brazilian Agrale Marrua AM41 Light Utility Truck

Szabad-e egy orosznak viccelni a nemzetközi helyzettel kapcsolatban? Valószínűleg csak azt szabad, különben zokogna.

Szemjon Szlepakov az orosz humoristák legújabb nemzedékéhez tartozik: 1979-ben született Pjatyigorszkban, ott végezte az egyetemet nyelvészként, de leginkább a helyi KVN-csapatra fordította az energiáit, és miután 2004-ben megnyerték a vetélkedőt, bekerült a tévé világába. 2005-től az orosz Comedy Club állandó fellépője, egyetemista éveihez képet meglepő módon: cinikus-ironikus dalocskákkal.

Szabad-e egy orosznak viccelni a nemzetközi helyzettel kapcsolatban? Valószínűleg csak azt szabad, különben zokogna.

Szemjon Szlepakov az orosz humoristák legújabb nemzedékéhez tartozik: 1979-ben született Pjatyigorszkban, ott végezte az egyetemet nyelvészként, de leginkább a helyi KVN-csapatra fordította az energiáit, és miután 2004-ben megnyerték a vetélkedőt, bekerült a tévé világába. 2005-től az orosz Comedy Club állandó fellépője, egyetemista éveihez képet meglepő módon: cinikus-ironikus dalocskákkal.

A la suite de la parution du numéro de Questions Internationales consacré à l'Afrique du Sud, nous avons eu l'honneur d'être reçu par Thierry Garcin dans l'émission Les Enjeux Internationaux sur France Culture.Vous pouvez réécouter l'émission ICI

Provides an overview as well as facts and figures on this island state situated off the coast of Africa

Polish VIS Pistol

Source: Defense Citizen Network South Korean defence firm Samsung Techwin sig

From Arlene Kushner:
January 19, 2015

Without Recourse
It should be, even in our less than perfect world, that international courts were bastions of ethical judgment and impartiality. OK, maybe that’s expecting too much.  Shall we say, just institutions that model some degree of ethical judgment and impartiality. But even this is expecting too much in today’s climate of severely distorted perceptions and values.

The court I have in mind, of course, is the International Criminal Court, which is just one more corrupt – and politically correct – international body.  As today’s JPost editorial has it: the court is unable to “differentiate between good and bad.” Ah, yes.


On Friday, Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced her decision to initiate a “preliminary probe” into alleged war crimes committed by Israel this past summer during the war in Gaza (Operation Protective Edge).  This is to determine whether prosecution is appropriate.

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In order to do this, she had to stretch credibility in several regards.  First, she had to determine that, for purposes of the Court, the Palestinian Authority was a state.  Never mind that the PA does not meet all the criteria of a state, the General Assembly – another upstanding institution – has accorded the PA status as an observer state. The ICC says that’s enough.

And then, she had to maintain the fiction that Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas – a terrorist organization, is part of that “Palestinian state.” This was necessary, because a state that accepts the ICC’s jurisdiction can only bring charges in crimes committed within its own borders.

Lastly, she had to overlook the fact that the IDF routinely does investigate charges regarding behavior in the field and pursues prosecution when this is deemed necessary.  The IDF – the most moral army in the world - is, in fact, super-scrupulous in this regard.  But the Court, you see, is only supposed to step in if such systems are not in place.

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International lawyer Alan Baker continues to say this will come to nothing, and that we only serve Abbas’s purposes when we become agitated about this situation.  So we will not be agitated.

Prime Minister Netanyahu called the Court decision “absurd,” which it is.  The Prime Minister’s Office released a statement that said, in part:

"We see here something truly tragic. The lofty goals of the ICC are being turned upside-down. The court was founded to prevent a repeat of history's worst crimes, foremost among them the genocide of six million Jews. Now the Palestinians are cynically manipulating the ICC to deny the Jewish state the right to defend itself against the very war crimes and the very terror that the court was established to prevent."  (Emphasis added)

http://www.pmo.gov.il/English/MediaCenter/Spokesman/Pages/spokehage170115.aspx

But the Court cannot be “manipulated” without its consent.  Bensouda could have ruled that the PA was not a state.  I see something very perverse in Palestinian Arab involvement with international organizations, which are prepared to voluntarily distort their essence or their mandates in an effort to be politically correct.  The PA is such a very minor player in the scheme of world affairs.  What gives it this power? 

The State Department, I must note, said, "We do not believe that Palestine is a state and therefore we do not believe that it is eligible to join the ICC."

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Actually, I shouldn’t say, as I did above, that we are “without recourse.”  This is true with regard to the international institutions where we might have expected some modicum of support.  But we certainly have recourse to our own sense of good and bad, and, most importantly, to the judgment of Heaven. 

There are, as well, nations that are with us.  I note in particular Canada – Canadian Foreign Minister Stephen Baird has just been here, lending words of support.

He told Netanyahu: “Canada doesn’t stand behind Israel; we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with it...The great struggle of our generation is terrorism and far too often the State of Israel and the Jewish people around the world are on the front lines of that struggle.” (Emphasis added)

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/canadian-foreign-minister-baird-shoulder-to-shoulder-with-israel/2015/01/19/

Can we clone him?  On his visit to Ramallah on Sunday, Arabs pelted his car with eggs because of his pro-Israel stance.


Credit: Miriam Alster/Flash 90

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Missiles fired from two helicopters struck at targets in the Syrian Golan yesterday, taking out either five or six members of Hezbollah.  Israel never officially acknowledges involvement in such attacks, but I would say that here we have an instance of our relying on our own resources with excellent judgment. 

Among those killed was Jihad Mughniyeh, son of Imad Mughniyeh, former Hezbollah operations chief whom we dispatched some time ago.  According to western intelligence sources, Jihad was head of a large-scale terrorist cell, with direct links to Iran, that had attacked Israel in the past. 

But there is more: According to various reports, also killed were six members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, including General Mohammad Allahdadi, formerly head of a Revolutionary Guard brigade.  The Iranians and the members of Hezbollah were part of one convoy. 

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Report-Six-Iranians-killed-in-Israeli-strike-in-Syria-including-Revolutionary-Guards-general-388210

The coming together of so many high level Hezbollah and Iranian fighters at one time, near the Israeli border, strongly suggests that a major operation was imminent. It might have included rockets, infiltrations into Israel, border bombings, anti-tank fire and more.  Just days ago, Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah threatened attacks on Israel.

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The attack that smoothly took out Hezbollah and Iranian high level personnel suggests superb Israeli intelligence and an operation that was pinpoint.

As I see it, this not only eliminated an immediate danger (it was essential, given the intelligence!), it enhanced our deterrence power – always a good thing.  They know we are watching, and that we act in our own best interest with great skill.

There is no doubt about the fact that there was a message here for Iran, as well as for Hezbollah.But the question now is what sort of retaliation we are likely to see.  It is considered unlikely that there will be a major attack that would escalate into war to our north.  But there is certainly a heightened risk of terror attacks – whether we are looking at infiltration into the north of Israel with attempts at kidnapping IDF soldiers, or attacking Israelis elsewhere in the world, as has been done before.

Whatever might be ahead, our forces are on high alert in the north now, with leaves cancelled and an Iron Dome installation moved northward.

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eyal Ben Reuven, in a press briefing arranged via The Israel Project, outlined the sensitive situation that Israel now faces: Should, for example, an Israeli soldier be killed by Hezbollah, or should rockets be launched against civilians in our north, this would invite retaliation that might generate a significant escalation in fighting.

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The situation of Hezbollah, operating in the Golan, directly across Israel’s border to the north, is exceedingly complex.  This area is no longer directly controlled by Assad.  Hezbollah, said General Ben Reuven, prefers acting against Israel from this theater rather than from its home base in Lebanon.  The Lebanese are not always happy with Hezbollah because of the violence unleashed on its population in response to Hezbollah actions.  However, Hezbollah still has a primary goal of supporting Assad, and does not want to invite an Israeli attack inside Syria that might result in weakening him.

Right now, with some 200,000 Syrians dead in the civil war, there seems to be a standoff, with neither side achieving victory.

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I end – for now - with a good news story that is both moving and astounding:

Michael Mittwoch, 92, and his wife Marion, 90, fled the Nazis in Germany.  They came to Israel, where they participated in the founding of Kibbutz Lavi in the north.

Now they have just celebrated the birth of their 100th (this is not a typo) great-grandchild.



Credit: Elad Gershgoren

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4615185,00.html

This is not just  a wonderfully uplifting story, it demonstrates something: We are a people who move past adversity to life, a testament to hope.

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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.  

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Technorati Tag: Israel and Hezbollah and ICC .

From the Step Up For Israel website:
Anti-Semitism is once again emerging from the shadows on US college campuses, in the guise of anti-Zionism.

Crossing the Line 2: The New Face of Anti-Semitism on Campus reveals the proliferation of anti-Israel activities and anti-Semitic rhetoric on North American university campuses. The line between fair criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism has been crossed, and we are witnessing increased hatred and violence across North American universities – from biased faculty members, eviction notices, and hostile classroom atmospheres, to national campaigns such as Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Crossing the Line 2 educates and empowers students and communities to learn more about current anti-Israel trends and take action.



Below is the abridged 15 minute version of Crossing the Line 2. The full film will be released in winter 2015:



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Technorati Tag: Israel and Antisemitism.

Serbian M76 Tactical Rifle